MANSFIELD: Sometimes I Hate Being Right

 

Of course it could be a mere coincidence that the same pickup truck that the mayor’s grandson, Frank Q. Jackson, has been arrested in on more than one occasion for crimes where guns were involved was just towed from the mayor’s house (where the younger Jackson resides) for suspicion of being involved in a killing in Cleveland’s Stockyard neighborhood. If it turns out that indeed it was the getaway truck we, of course, could then say that the fact the truck was used in the crime doesn’t mean that the mayor’s grandson was driving it at the time.

In fact, the younger Jackson could be completely innocent in this last episode where young men turned our streets into the Wild, Wild West. But fear not, if he wasn’t involved in this shootout just give him a bit more time, he’s going to be involved in another one soon enough … that is if the Court system doesn’t do him a favor and send him off to prison first.

Sometimes I hate being right, but back in early July when this young thug last appeared in court over a gun-related incident I wrote that the first thing he probably did upon getting into his vehicle after leaving the courthouse was to check under the seat to make sure his new gun was still there. Know this, if anyone thinks Frank Q. Jackson is going to wake up one day soon and decide on his own to quit playing dangerous games with guns … they’re dreaming.

The best thing that could happen to him (and the hundreds of other young gangbangers out there who are just looking for a reason to bust a cap in someone’s ass) is for the court system to do its job and save him from himself in the process. Of course, to his mind, getting sent to prison would mean that he was arrested and sentenced, but in truth, it would really mean he got rescued.

How old is he, 20 or 21? It’s a proven fact that young men don’t engage in adult thinking until around age 26 or 27, and some don’t grow up even by then; those are the ones that should be left in prison for a few more years.

I get it. Young black men didn’t create the culture they are acting out in — systemic, untrammeled racism did that many, many years ago. In fact, they are victims of said culture. But if we want to save the lives of our young men until we can change the culture then we have to be willing to lock them away from guns until they mature. And the slick lawyers and half-asleep judges need to work hand-in-glove with prosecutors and parole officers to reduce the madness of inner-city gun violence.

But there is an alternative (there always is, isn’t there?): We could continue to have young people place teddy bears, balloons, candles, and half-full bottles of Hennessy at the sight of the killings, since that makes them feel so much better, now doesn’t it? Heaven help us.

From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.

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One Response to “MANSFIELD: Sometimes I Hate Being Right”

  1. Peter Lawson Jones

    When I heard the news that Frank Q. Jackson had been fatally shot, I immediately thought of your previous commentary in which you implored the court, his family or anyone to intervene and remove him from an environment that virtually guaranteed his imminent demise. Yet another death that should have been avoided. As you said, sometimes you hate that you were right.

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